UL Athletics Earns 105 All-conference Academic Awards
Total ranked fourth out of 11 Sun Belt Universities, the most for the program since joining the conference in 1991-92
LOUISIANA La. - For the second straight year the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's athletics department established a new bar of academic excellence, showing that athletics and academics go hand-in-hand.
The Sun Belt Conference recently released its list of the 2003-04 academic all-conference honorees and 105 Ragin' Cajun athletes were honored for their work in the classroom during the academic year.
The total number of honorees ranked the Ragin' Cajuns athletics department fourth out of the 11 Sun Belt schools on the academic award list.
The total is also the most since UL joined the Sun Belt Conference in 1991-92 and bested the previous high of 100 set just last year (2002-03).
The Ragin' Cajuns had 43 Commissioner's List honorees and 62 Honor Roll selections.
The Commissioner's List is a made up of athletes who have maintained at least a 3.5 grade point average for the previous two semesters. The Honor Roll is a collection of all student-athletes with a grade point average between 3.0 - 3.49.
Louisiana-Lafayette's Commissioner's List total tied the highest for the program since the SBC spilt its academic awards into the two lists during the 1997-98 calendar year. The Cajuns best for the Commissioner's List honorees was 43 set just last season.
UL's 43 Commissioner's List selections ranked as the sixth-most league-wide, while the 62 Honor Roll members gave Louisiana the second-highest total on that list.
Louisiana was one of four schools in the SBC to garner
100-plus academic awards.
The women's soccer and baseball programs each had had a department-high 15 honorees to lead all Cajun sports for 2003-04.
The soccer team's nine Commissioner's List selections were the most department-wide on that particular list.
The men's golf team led all Sun Belt schools with three listed on the Commissioner's List. Tony Robichaux's baseball squad had 11 members on the Honor Roll to lead the way amongst the fellow Sun Belt baseball programs and Lance Veazey's men's track and field/cross country program led the Sun Belt with 11 Honor Roll members.
Becky Madden's volleyball team made the biggest strides in improving its academic standing. After having just three total honorees during the 2002-03 academic year, the squad placed eight of its 11 members on the academic listings - representing 73 percent of its roster.
League-wide, more than 1,000 student-athletes representing 18 championship sports and 13 member schools within the Sun Belt Conference maintained a 3.0 or better grade point average over the past academic year.
LOUISIANA SI
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